Ah....how did it come to be September in the garden? It's gone so fast, this garden season. And while the air feels cooler and the color out there is changing, there is still a great deal going on in the garden. My days are far more full this time of year, but I am finding moments here and there when I can to get out there and work on it. This week, we've been cleaning up some beds that are 'done' for the year, adding some compost, planting winter rye. Others are being prepared for the garlic that is to come when I pick it up at the fair next week (I didn't grow enough to use as seed this year).
Tomatoes are just about done, beans might never end (oh my bushel after bushel!), beets and brassicas are all plentiful and being enjoyed daily. I've harvested some of the squash - it may have been our smallest yield ever. Squash are so tricky for us here - between the bugs and the relatively short growing season, they seem to struggle each year. Interestingly, I think I got more squash from the volunteer plants that grew around the yard (where pigs once were, or an old compost bin lingered) than I did from those I intentionally planted! We're enjoying discovering those here and there.
I'm beginning to think about next year's garden, and what I might want to do differently. Grow more of some things (there are never enough beets), grow less of others (our collard consumption is apparently less than I thought it would be). Move things around a bit, keep some things the same. I'm jotting down notes of varieties we loved (oh, those chieftan potatoes!), and those we weren't as thrilled with. I'd like to get out there with a pen and paper and sketch out this year's garden alongside a plan for next years, before it's all covered with snow and my memory of this summer is foggy.
But for now, there's still time to be had in the garden. Still harvests to be brought in. Still work to be done out of doors. And we are, for certain, enjoying it immensely.
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If you're keeping garden notes and photographs and want to share it with the rest of us, do leave a comment with a link so that we may take a stroll through your garden too! It's a delight to see what and how things are growing all over, and to read the comments with such great gardening wisdom! Thank you all for continuing to share in this little project.
